Nine European state postal operators have issued a joint call for “cautious” liberalisation ofthe EU postal sector, which is due to be fully de-regulated from 2009 onwards. The demand was made
by the postal operators of France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Luxembourg andCyprus.Their call follows the joint statement by Deutsche Post, TNT, Posten (Sweden) and Finland Postin mid-July, calling for a complete opening of the EU postal market in 2009, as envisaged by theEuropean Commission. The EU executive is due to publish proposals by the end of 2006 on how tocomplete postal liberalisation in the 25-country European Union. The final decision will be takenby EU governments.
The nine postal operators, the population of whose countries account for over 50% of theCommunity population, expressed concern at the findings of a recent PWC study on the “Impact onUniversal Service of the Full Market Accomplishment of the Postal Internal Market in 2009″. In ajoint statement, they called on the European Commission to take “a balanced approach” when drawingup future postal legislation.
The PWC survey states that the opening of the market will have a significant impact on theoperator providing the universal service as well as on the universal postal service itself in mostof the member states. This impact varies according to the particular situation in each country.Hence, the study concludes that these member states need to implement specific flanking measures inorder to guarantee the sustainability of the universal service in a liberalised environment. Thesemeasures would be:
* Efficiency and productivity gains including a reduced post office network and labour costsaligned to those of competitors.
* A reduced universal service
* Direct state subsidies.
The nine Posts said they see these flanking measures as either detrimental for the majorityof the users, or inoperable or simply no flanking measures. No proof is given of their efficiencyor of the fact that they will allow to meet the objectives. These measures do not guarantee thefinancing of the universal service and harm the scope, the quality and the accessibility of theservices currently offered to the citizens of the Union, their statement said.
Still, the Commission is very much concerned about the economic and social harm which will be atstake if the universal service provision fails, as recital 3 of the 2002 Directive states: “Article16 of the Treaty highlights the place occupied by services of general economic interest in theshared values of the Union as well as their role in promoting social and territorial cohesion. Itgoes on to state that care should be taken that such services operate on the basis of principlesand conditions which enable them to fulfil their missions”.
The study gives no clear answer as to the economic impact of a reduction in the scope of theuniversal service, in particular for the small and medium-sized companies nor does it address thesocial and societal impact. Finally, the study does not meet the explicit request by the EuropeanParliament in February 2006 to determine appropriate financing of the universal service.
The nine Posts instead called for truly efficient measures for financing the universal postalservice to be identified and implemented before the “restricted reserved area” (postal monopoly)was removed.
